The Dragon Age series has evolved in a tumultuous fashion since Origins. The switch from the world-threatening crisis of the first game to the personal stories of Dragon Age 2 proved too great a shift for some fans. Inquisition will again take the series to a grander stage. An open world with dynamic keep battles will bolster the central story, which sees inquisition led by you recruiting aid aid to postpone an imminent apocalypse.

How else will Inquisition differ from its predecessors? What have Bioware learned from fans of the series? How will they correct the awkward savegame bugs that could bring characters back to life, and how have they chosen your companions for the new adventure? Chris spoke to executive producer, Mark Darrah, to find out.

PC Gamer: What has creating this new protagonist, the inquisitor, given you the opportunity to do or change that you couldn t have with the warden, or with Hawke, or with a previous Dragon Age lead?

Mark Darrah: One of the reasons that we ve decided to do that in the Dragon Age series is that it lets us explore a lot more themes. Hawke s story, it s not done, but the most important event of his life is essentially what s happening in Dragon Age 2. With the warden from Dragon Age: Origins he carries a lot of very divergent baggage. Anything from he could be dead to maybe there s a kid in the picture, maybe he s actually ruling Ferelden with Anora.

He s a very difficult character to proceed with because the universe is in very different places based on the events of the Dragon Age: Origins. Just reflecting those changes in the future games is a big challenge. To actually have him as a playable character is just it would tie our hands too much. It would require us to make a story that was too constrained.

When we started this franchise, what we really wanted to always be doing was telling the story of the world, as opposed to the story of a single character. When we have a character, these events are big and world-shaking. We basically are trying to tell the story in the best way possible, rather than trying to have an arc for a single character.

PC Gamer: What is different about the inquisitor? In each case, the player puts a tremendous stamp on who they are. Hawke is not necessarily the warden. They have specific ways in which they have their own identity.

Mark Darrah: Because we re going back to full races there s going to be a significant difference in background between the different potential inquisitors. In Dragon Age: Origins you are a member of the wardens, but in a lot of ways you are the last surviving warden or at least the last surviving warden on the ground when he s needed. I mean Alistair is there.

PC Gamer: Yes, apart from Alistair.

Mark Darrah: Apart from Alistair, who doesn t want to pick up the mantle for his own reasons.

PC Gamer: Sure, of course.



Mark Darrah: In Dragon Age 2 Hawke is really a leaf in the wind. The story is very much about him reacting to the world pushing on him. In this case it s much more about putting the inquisitor at the head of an organization that you re reestablishing. This isn t about being a Jedi, this is about founding the Jedi order.

You re definitely much more of an actor. You re the tip of the spear. You aren t waiting for the world to act upon you. You are acting upon it, both because you have an organization at your back. This gives you greater reach. You re not walking into a camp and begging for help. You re pounding down the gates of a castle and demanding that they come onto your side.

Also, surviving this calamity has actually given you powers that other people don t have. You have a remnant of this explosion in your hand that actually allows you to close these fade rifts that are around the world. This gives you additional influence on the world and additional ability to demand respect, demand that people listen to you, because you can do something no one else can. You can actually put a stop to this.

PC Gamer: It s a new direction for the narrative, but it sounds like there are a lot of echoes of who the warden is. You re still a part of an organization that s almost neutral, a third party to a lot of the conflicts in the world. Also, having something about yourself that allows you to interact with evil in a particular way.

Mark Darrah: Yes, that s a very good observation. In a lot of ways the inquisition is similar to the wardens in that way. Something stands apart or above the politics. It does what needs to be done to fix the world essentially. One of the overarching things of Dragon Age has always been that people do bad things, but for good reasons and that it takes someone outside of the situation to do good things in that situation.

Loghain in Dragon Age: Origins is someone who is doing something bad, but he s doing it because from his perspective it s the right thing to do. To him, Orlais is ultimately a bigger threat than the blight. He can t allow the Orlesians to come in to help. As the warden in Dragon Age: Origins, you re standing apart.

This is that taken to the next level. This is you. Everything is just too chaotic. There s a civil war mixing up Orlais. Someone needs to come in to do what needs to be done. In this case, more than in Dragon Age: Origins, there s the hints and the scent that there s a public master behind this. There s someone that s tugging on the string and maybe pushing the chaos a bit farther.



PC Gamer: Was the reasoning behind coming up with a new faction then so the players could maybe put their own spin on it and determine more about it? For example if you tried to tell this story starring a warden commander then you would be bound to that previous amount of the fiction that s already been established.

Mark Darrah: Yes, very much so. The wardens are as we ll go into Inquisition to some degree they have one purpose: to fight blights, To fight darkspawn, to fight blights to a fanatical degree. To this is their purpose, they will do nearly anything in order to do that.

We ve established a lot of this and there s a certain amount of expectation set up from Dragon Age: Origins. We re not done with the wardens, but yes, they have limitations from how they can be used.

PC Gamer: Sure. I was going to ask, just to broaden the range a little bit, you guys have had a big presence at PAX. I wasn t there, but it was interesting to observe. Obviously, really substantial and a big substantial fan response to it as well. I guess two sides to that. One, why is that important to you and two, has it been useful now that you re going into the rest of development?

Mark Darrah: Yes, we did have a really big presence at PAX. We have a continuous presence. We have a base where we have a very much, a very personal connection to the fans. Then PAX Prime, last year we did a huge stage presence. It s been very helpful. It s very important from my perspective to keep in touch with our fans, to listen to their concerns, to stay in contact with them, to give them an opportunity to provide us with feedback.

The other thing that I think that this venue does is it gives them an opportunity to see us as people as well. We only have an opportunity to communicate electronically. It s very easy to see Bioware or any company as a single monolithic entity, that there are no people in there.

Trade shows, especially things like PAX which are very fan-focused, are very good for making that connection, directly, one on one with our fans. It s very important. We do take it back. It s very energizing for the developers with a huge presence at PAX PRIME, I think there was 30 people there from Bioware. It s just very good to see the response. I think to some degree it s very important for the devs to see the gamers as people as well and not the faceless masses on the forums.



PC Gamer: I was going to ask, how much you guys feel like you have to react to your fans, to what they want, and how much freedom you have to lead them in almost any regard, from the small decisions you re making to scoping out the future of the series and everything else?

Mark Darrah: It s a little bit of both. From a small feature perspective things like control schemes and the way that the narrative or the way that the conversation works and stuff like that, that s where we take a lot of feedback. That s where we re very much, I think people have a clear understanding of what they want and what they don t like.

The danger is most people, myself included, aren t perfectly objective when they re playing a game at the higher level. Henry Ford has a famous quote. If we asked people what they wanted they d ask for a faster horse. There s a certain amount of truth to that.

Part of our job is to go out into the wilderness to go farther beyond what the players have seen, what they ve played and essentially light a torch so they can see what could be and then hopefully they ll want what we re presenting. That can be uncomfortable. That can result in concern because obviously what they re comfortable with, what they ve played before isn t completely what we re delivering.

In the case of Dragon Age: Inquisition I think there is a core there. I think there is a core Dragon Age game at its center. I think that comfort still remains, but we will be pushing you, we re challenging you with some new things.

PC Gamer: It s interesting, from an outsider s perspective, it always seems like Dragon Age undergoes quite a radical transformation game to game. That wasn t the case in Mass Effect, even though obviously things were improved and changed. The scope of the game maybe didn t change so dramatically. Why has that been the case do you think?

Mark Darrah: In a lot of ways Inquisition has been the game that we ve really wanted to make from the beginning. From a systemic perspective Dragon Age 2 is actually very similar to Dragon Age: Origins. Its bones are the same, but we ve put a very different outfit on top of it, for a lack of a better term.

Dragon Age 2, we decided we want to try something, to try to do very different storytelling, something much more personal, something much more tightly constrained. No chosen one, no clear overarching threat. I don t think it was a perfect success, but that was intentional.

A lot of the other changes that are perceived, the overall scope of the game or the perception of the combat getting a lot simpler or waves and things like that not intended, exactly. That was supposed to be more evolutionary. I think we just overreached. We pushed too hard.

Because of Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition is having to be a lot more ambitious, to address those concerns and really try to get back much more to the roots of the franchise. Much more about tactical combat and a higher level of deliberate difficulty. More clear overall story, with the moral choices still in there, but much more in vein of Dragon Age: Origins style storytelling. You re right to ask. The goal wasn t to revolutionize the series every single time, but Dragon Age 2 forced our hand to a certain degree.





PC Gamer: I was going to ask about the structure of the campaign. I ve read as much as I could about how you have some choice about where you go and the order you complete tasks and how you go about doing things. How does that specifically differ to the traditional Bioware RPG of a couple of years ago where you have four things to do in the world, and you do four of them in whatever order you like. How is that different in this game?

Mark Darrah: In Dragon Age: Inquisition there s essentially two axes of what s happening. There s the steps you need to take to deal with the breach in the sky, to uncover who s behind it and ultimately to stop them. The steps to do that are relatively clear. You can do them in different orders, but they re relatively clear.

The second axis is that in order to do some of those things you need your inquisition to be strong enough to demand attention. If you re going to go and try to get the Templars on your side, for example, they re not listening. You need the inquisition to be strong enough to force that meeting.

That s where that broader sense, that broader exploration sense comes in because the way you empower your inquisition is through doing the things that only you can do. Through spreading your presence throughout the world, through closing fade rifts around the world, through going and dealing with the problems in the larger exploration areas and really just digging in and doing what needs to be done.

Then, when you ve done that you can go and engage with the parts of the story that are going to directly attack the problems, the overarching problems. You ve got two things to do. You ve got your critical path and then you ve got a secondary need to strengthen up your inquisition in order to proceed on the critical path.

PC Gamer: It s primarily the influence of the inquisition that divides the story up into acts or whatever.

Mark Darrah: That s right, that s a good way of looking at it.

PC Gamer: In terms of adding these, correct me if this is a wrong interpretation, but it seems like Inquisition is moving towards something more like an open-world game, or even strategy in some ways.

Mark Darrah: I think, definitely, we re trying for something that has a very open-world feel. The one thing that I ve experienced in a lot of beautiful role games that I ve played has been that when you start to disengage from those open-world systems there s nothing to come back to. Often, your last experience, just as you got bored with the game and wandered away.

In our case we want to make sure that that core, that critical path, is compelling, is strong, it s got a strong magnetism. As you disengage from the open-world you have something to reengage with. You have something drawing you through to see how it ends.



PC Gamer: There are choices in the past. You mentioned one earlier, the state of the warden, who can be dead, and obviously something that has come up with fans quite a bit, in Awakening the zombie warden scenario. Is that something you've addressed in Inquisition?

Mark Darrah: Yes. There s a couple, the zombie warden was just a stupid decision on our part I d say. We should have just not let you. We decided, if you want to play awakening we should let you use your warden. Well what if they re dead? We ll let you bring them back to life. We should just not have that.

PC Gamer: I made a new warden.

Mark Darrah: There s a couple of other things though. One of the big reasons for creating the is the save games of the previous two games. In Origins in particular are messy and full of bugs. Zevran is a good example where you can kill him in Dragon Age: Origins and then in Dragon Age 2, those flags aren t set properly in the Origins saves, so the game doesn t realize that Zevran s dead and just basically brings him back to life.

That wasn t an intentional retcon on our part. That was actually a bug. This lets us go in and finally get those states in just something that s actually correct.

PC Gamer: In addition to fixing that stuff, do you have freedom to clarify? I suppose in some cases what fans are looking for is not necessarily for this singing or dancing cut-scene resolution to something that s been hanging, but just something to explain how this happened or how that came together?

Mark Darrah: Yes, there will be a little bit of that. Leliana is brought back to life even if she dies at the Temple of Sacred Ashes. I m not sure that we ve provided enough information as to why and what s happening, what went on there, why that s possible. Yes, this is an opportunity for us to give a little bit more context and explain what s actually going on.



PC Gamer: Fair enough. What is your criteria for determining which characters do come back? Actually, not simply from the dead, but I mean from game to game. Why would Varric make the cut and not somebody else?

Mark Darrah: That s a good question. Some of it s based on just what the writers are excited about writing. But also, we look for a certain amount of balance between the character. There s a bunch of things that we re trying to do for balance. You want a certain degree of balance between the classes. You want a certain amount of balance between the genders and then a certain amount of balance between the romance options.

If you ve had a character in a previous game that was a romance option typically we won t bring them back because they carry a lot of extra baggage with them. You re not going to have a romance option come back and certainly not have them be a romance option again because there s a lot of baggage that comes with that.

The player might get angry as well. But they re in love with my previous character forever and ever and ever. How dare you? I think there s validity to that. You can start to cross off a few characters because of that. We often don t bring back characters, at least not as followers, if they were previously romance options. You might see them. Alistair comes back because we can do cameos and have them have an influence on the story.

But additionally, some characters, Varric s a very good character because one of Varric s primary motivations is he s the guy that s got your back. He s your friend. He s a very good character to have because it s good to have someone in your camp no matter what. That makes him a very attractive character. It makes him an interesting character to have because he offers a nice counterpoint to a lot of other kinds of characters.

The other thing that causes us to bring someone back is someone that we re just simply not done with. That the arc is incomplete. Isabella between Origins and Dragon Age 2 is a good example of that. We introduced her, but there s just a lot more to be done with that. That s actually usually how we choose. Often characters move. We don t reuse followers very often. Obviously, we are reusing Varric. We typically promote secondary characters between games.

PC Gamer: Right, so someone graduates from being a quest-giving NPC to being a companion.

Mark Darrah: Yes.

PC Gamer: I read, recently, I think it was something that came out of PAX about diversifying the types of romantic relationship in the game. I was going to ask if some of that thinking also applies to friendship as well because obviously it s a type of relationship that people have with the companions that s not necessarily binary.

Mark Darrah: Friendship I think is I think we ve become trapped by that, the word romance. I think friendship is I actually regret that in Dragon Age 2 we didn t have essentially that kind of bromance with Varric. He s not a romance, but he s, you can hang out with him and be your bud and have that same kind of depth. Some of our, what we would traditionally call romances in Dragon Age: Inquisition are falling more into that camp where they re not they re more in that friendship area.

PC Gamer: Thank you very much for your time.

This is the story of a videogame named Dota 2. Dota 2 was a popular game about wizards and pushed lanes and unprompted apologies. It had absolutely nothing to do with another game, called The Stanley Parable, but for one exception: they both contained voice-overs. And so, last year, the creator of The Stanley Parable announced a desire to write and record a Dota 2 announcer pack featuring the meta-comedy's narrator. And, after a long silence, it was revealed that the pack had been recorded, and will likely soon be available to buy.

DOTA is done! The Narrator slumped into his chair and poured an incredibly large scotch. 'Twas a night to celebrate.— Kevan Brighting (@kevanthevoice) April 21, 2014


The new dialogue recorded by The Stanley Parable's calmly menacing Kevan Brighting still needs to be correctly coded into Dota's many actions, which is why there isn't yet a release date for the pack. When it does come out, players will have two disdainful announcement options; the 'Narrator' joining GLaDOS as a potential player-mocking companion.

It's a strange situation when a voice-pack becomes the impetus to play a game, but I can see myself giving Dota 2 another shot purely as an excuse to hear how TSP's meta-game commentary is transposed onto Valve's lane-pusher. After all, it's a game that features far more genuine choice than The Stanley Parable, albeit choice that revolves around whether or not to fire a ghost ship at an angry bear.

Tom Sykes correctly identified Architects EP as containing some of the week's best free games, but, as a fan of Braingale's previous Brain Theatre EP, their follow-up project seemed worthy of some extra attention.

Architects EP is another round-up of short-form games from the indie collective, this time interspersed with music albums and a rather charming train-based animation. All of it is available, for free, as a zip file full of weird experiments and inventive prototypes.

Having perused a few of the included games, some favourites have emerged. In ^, you alternate between 'action' and 'build' phases to climb to the top of a tower. Open a chest or destroy an obstacle in the action phase, and you'll be rewarded with cards for the build phase. These provide new structures and power-ups, which can be placed down to help complete the next action sequence. It makes for a somewhat tactical platformer, in which you're trying to balance steady progress against a desire to save and manage resources.

Marble Safari, meanwhile, is on the more eccentric side of the Braingale spectrum. In it, you must discover, research and catalogue the ecosystem of an alien planet. You do this by navigating a marble into the various flora and fauna; uncovering the workings of its wildlife through the destruction of your rolling rock.

Head here to see the full EP. You can either download it whole, or individually investigate its distinct parts.

Over the years, it's become increasingly difficult to summarise the various Codemasters racing series. There was a time when each game's "thing" was obvious. You had Colin McRae Rally, which was a rally game, and TOCA, which was a touring car game. Since then, we've had the DIRTs, which were about rallying, skidding ostentatiously around corners and Americans, and the GRIDs, the focus of which seemed to be "stuff on a road".

Now, Codemasters have announced Grid Autosport, which aims to focus in on a single, specific idea: racing fast cars very fast around racing tracks.



"GRID Autosport aims to move the series back in line as a more authentic racing game," writes Codemasters community manager Ben Walke. It's an interesting announcement, in that it almost reads as an admission that the series has slipped beyond the expectations of their fans.

"On release of GRID 2, I think it s fair to say that through listening to you guys and a after a substantial amount of reflection, we hadn t quite achieved everything we set out to do," Walke writes. "We re proud of the game, really delighted with some of the great reviews for it, but we re not above admitting that we made a few decisions that perhaps we shouldn t have, and perhaps moved some of the aspects of the game too far away from our core fanbase."

It's clear that with Autosport, Codemasters want a game that acts like a true descendant of the TOCA series, with a focus specifically on motorsport. There are five 'disciplines' planned, including Touring Cars, Endurance and Street Races; and the handling is being re-tuned for a more sim-like experience. "It s definitely not a full simulation we want it to be authentic, not clinical but it s more towards that end of the spectrum than before," writes Walke. "If anything, we believe the handling is actually one or two steps further towards simulation than Race Driver: GRID."

Head over to the Codemasters blog for a detailed report on their plans for the new game. Grid Autosport is due out on June 27th for PC and consoles.

Perhaps it's just a side effect from the afterglow to watching this week's Game Of Thrones, but I can't seem to stop staring at the recently revealed box art for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Anyway, in the unlikely event you still actually go to bricks and mortar shops to buy your games, now you know what to look for: A goopy green cloud of monsters, and a knight with a flaming sword throwing a Freddie Mercury shape. Classic BioWare.

Also classic BioWare is the fact that the armoured character, the game's titular Inquisitor, isn't obviously a dude or a lady. As with Mass Effect, you can opt to play as either. Dragon Age: Inquisition is due out this Fall and runs on DICE's powerful Frostbite 3 engine. You can see some leaked footage of the game in action here, and there's also a very pretty and a couple of screenshots here.

Unknown Worlds describes Subnautica as a blend of role-playing and exploration. A reductive but maybe more effective way to describe it is an underwater Minecraft. It doesn t look like it will allow for Minecraft s level of customization, but it focuses on non-violent exploration of an underwater world, allowing you to design, build, and crew a submarine. Unlike Minecraft and its simple presentation, part of what makes Subnautica interesting is how it will render colorful coral reefs, strange sea creatures, and other sights that make for a great nature documentary. Judging by the first batch of screenshots, it looks like Unknown world is off to a good start.
Unknown Worlds stresses the point that these are taken from a pre-alpha build, and hence don t represent the final product at all, but the game looks pretty good already. These two are taken from the Koosh Bush Zone, named after those large purple plants, and the Grassy Plateau area:




And this one is of the Sea Glide, a personal water vehicle, and Cyclops, the first submarine to make it into Subnautica.


If you re interested in Subnautica, Cory, Evan, and Tyler talk about what they saw of it at PAX East in this video.

In 2012, Peter "Durante" Thoman wrote the popular mod DSfix for Dark Souls: Prepare to Die on PC, fixing its locked 1024x720 resolution and other issues. In 2013, he released a similar fix for Deadly Premonition. We asked Durante to analyze the PC port of Dark Souls 2 in a series of articles. Here he explains how to wring the most performance from the game

We previously investigated what Dark Souls 2 delivers out of the box, and it certainly has a nice selection of options. However, due to the unique strengths of the PC platform, we can try to go further in order to enhance our visual experience. In this article we will be relying entirely on generic, freely available tools. No hardcore hacks required.
Image Quality & Anti-Aliasing
The in-game anti-aliasing option enables a post-processing solution, more specifically FXAA3 with the high quality profile, as it is commonly provided in many modern games. While its implementation is of much higher quality than the blur available in the first Dark Souls PC port, it still suffers from the drawbacks inherent in such solutions (you can read more details about the various types of aliasing and anti-aliasing here):

No anti-aliasing for sub-pixel structures (objects which have less width or height on screen than the size of a single pixel).
Instability in motion, because the edge blur is generated from individual images and not true scene data.
Slight unintended blurring of pixels which are not on aliased edges.

We have multiple options for improving image quality in the game. Since Dark Souls 2 supports arbitrary resolutions, one option is to use downsampling, either as a replacement for, or in addition to, the in-game anti-aliasing setting. This allows us to achieve an arbitrary level of desired image quality, though with a serious performance hit.



In short, downsampling from 4k resolution and beyond makes most games look their very best, bringing out all possible detail while eliminating artifacts, but it requires a very powerful PC to maintain acceptable performance levels. The screenshot below was taken at the 7680x4320 resolution (16x Full HD !) shown in the image above and downsampled.


Using Nvidia Inspector
However, there is another, even better option for those of you with Nvidia graphics cards. I discovered a compatibility flag which works with Dark Souls 2 and enables the use of any level of SGSSAA (2x, 4x and 8x). In order to perform this tweak, you need to get Nvidia Inspector and set up the Dark Souls 2 profile as shown here:



It may be slightly confusing to select numbers associated with other games such as Diablo 3 and Demigod here, but all it means is that what Dark Souls 2 does in regard to rendering is similar enough to what these games do for that particular hack to work. Here are the specific steps you need to perform for Inspector-based tweaking in Dark Souls 2 (as annotated in the image):

If it is not already there, add darksoulsII.exe to the list of executables associated with this profile, by clicking the icon with the small green + .
Enter 0x0000001F in the Ambient occlusion compatibility field.
Enter 0x004412C1 in the Antialiasing compatibility field.
Select Override any application setting as the Antialiasing Mode , and select your desired level of SGSSAA in both the Antialiasing Setting and Antialiasing Transparency Supersampling fields. Higher levels are higher quality, but also cause a larger performance hit.
If you want to force full anisotropic filtering on all textures in the game, you may do so here.
Set Ambient Occlusion Setting to Quality .

Better Image Quality in Motion
I previously described the drawbacks of the post-processing antialiasing method used in the game, but concepts like temporal stability and sub-pixel structures might appear quite abstract without an example. The following animation shows the difference on some swaying grass, which is an example of a thin structure in motion. To make the distinction more obvious, the image is scaled by a factor of 2 in both dimensions.

Note how the in-game anti-aliasing does not work well in this use case, causing flickering and image instability, while 4xSGSSAA handles the situation perfectly. AMD users need not fret, downsampling from a sufficiently high resolution can achieve similarly good results.






Ambient Occlusion
As you may have noticed in the earlier article, one effect in the game I haven t discussed in depth so far is its integrated ambient occlusion setting. Ambient occlusion is a screen-space post-processing effect which aims to simulate global illumination. The basic idea is that less light reaches places which are behind objects, or inside fissures and gaps, so these locations should be darkened.

The in-game effect is a quite basic implementation, which sometimes gives more of a 2D drop shadow effect than an approximation of how real light would behave. It s still preferable to not having ambient occlusion at all, but modern methods can do much better. Perhaps the best realtime ambient occlusion method currently available is Nvidia s HBAO+. It can be forced in a variety of games using Inspector, and after a long search I found that the compatibility flag 0x0000001F works almost perfectly in the game. Sadly, just almost, as the effect gets applied after UI elements have been rendered, so you get strange shadow effects on the UI. Nvidia should be able to do something about that with an official profile, but whether they will do so remains to be seen.

The picture below compares no ambient occlusion, the in-game method, and HBAO+. Note how HBAO+ gives a much more smooth, natural and detailed lighting effect, without the halos and errors common in simpler AO methods. You can also compare the effects using the full-size screenshots hosted here (HBAO+), here (In-game AO) and here (No AO).



One additional advantage of HBAO+ which is not visible in screenshots is that it is much more stable in motion, and does not flicker around small objects such as hair or grass.

In terms of performance, the in-game method is very lightweight, increasing GPU usage on my GTX 770 by about 4 percentage points in that particular scene (50% to 54%). HBAO+ requires more computation, but is still very efficient given the high quality result. It increases GPU usage to 60% when testing the same scene.
Post-processing with SweetFX
Some Dark Souls fans who were following the pre-release information closely have been disappointed that the final game does not fully capture the visual splendor of some areas which were shown off in the pre-release demo. While post-processing cannot bring back missing light sources, it can help re-capture a more dramatic mood.

One significant change which, in my opinion, negatively impacts the visuals in the final game is the high level of ambient illumination (i.e. areas which are brightly lit even when there are no light sources). Using SweetFX with a custom profile (downloadable here), the ambient light level can be reduced, while the impact of existing light sources is strengthened.

FX off. Click for higher resolution.

FX on. Click for higher resolution.

FX off. Click for higher resolution.

FX on. Click for higher resolution.

FX off. Click for higher resolution.

FX on. Click for higher resolution.

FX off. Click for higher resolution.

FX on. Click for higher resolution.

Note that this tweak will require you to take torches or other light sources into some areas which could previously just barely be navigated without any such aids, and thus serves to make a difficult game even harder. However, I am sure that some fans will see this as an additional incentive. The performance impact of the provided profile is moderate. It increased GPU usage by 8-10% on my system.

One significant drawback of SweetFX injection is that it also affects all the UI elements. SweetFX is a generic tool which simply works on the final image produced by the game, and as such this unintended side-effect is unavoidable. Another slight problem is that the same processing is applied regardless of the area of the game you are currently in, but the profile linked above works well in most areas.
Conclusion
The three PC tweaking staples of downsampling, driver-level improvements and post-processing effect injection allow us to further improve Dark Souls 2 s graphics, adjust them to our liking and take some beautiful screenshots. While the game is thus rendered perfectly pleasing to the eye, it may be possible to go even further. In a third and final article, we will investigate the possibilities for and likelihood of more in-depth and game-specific modding of Dark Souls 2 in the future.

You may have noticed some strange behavior in Garry s Mod if you played it a couple of days ago. An exploit that took advantage of the Source Engine s file sending mechanism made it possible to send files with any extension to the client or server. Strangely, this was used to change users Steam name to VINH'LL FIX IT, and using them to spam friends and players with the word cough over chat. The exploit is mostly fixed now, but Garry s Mod s own Garry Newman tells us it could have been a lot worse.
The worm as I understand it was transferred to the client as a dll, then when it loaded it crashed the client, in the hope that they'd join another server, Newman told PC Gamer in an email. When they did it downloaded the server's config file and looked for a rcon password. RCON, or remote console, allows you to control a server remotely. If it got one, it infected the server by uploading the dll and running it (it didn't need rcon to upload the dll, only to run it). And then the cycle continued.
Newman said he patched Garry s Mod within an hour of finding out about it, and that Valve did the same, but that it s still possible for the bug to spread via different Source Engine mods, so be careful what you download.
The effects of the worm were mostly non-destructive as far as we know, Newman said. Luckily the creator kept it pretty tame. It could have been a hell of a lot worse. I hope by being proactive and patching it quickly we avoided anyone using it maliciously.

As PC Gamer s 2013 Multiplayer Game of the Year, you surely already own Rising Storm if you have even a passing interest in multiplayer shooters. But maybe you ve been feeling burnt out on the content that s been out since launch. Luckily, Tripwire Interactive and Anti Matter Games just announced Rising Storm s Game of the Year Edition, which includes a handful of new maps, vehicles, and even a new mode.
The new map from Tripwire itself is Maggot Hill, and features a new character set: Merrill's Marauders. In addition, three new community maps have been made official: Phosphate Plant and Otori Shima for Rising Storm, and Myshkovka River for Red Orchestra 2.
The Russian and German factions each got a new transport vehicle, and three maps (Barashka, Arad 2, and Rakowice) were reconfigured to accommodate them.
10 maps were also reconfigured to support a new mode called Search & Destroy, a single life game-type in which teams take turns attempting to destroy one of multiple objectives by planting an explosive.
If you already own the game, you'll get all of this new content for free, through a 8.5GB update you can download now. If you don t, Rising Storm will be free to try later this week on Steam, where it will go on sale for a limited time.

One of the best things about Hearthstone is that when you do this to your opponent, you don't have to listen to them whine about it. Likewise, you don't have to suffer them being smug when you're on the end of a big beating. The in-game's chat system is limited to a handful of stock phrases, the worst of which is "that was a mistake!", which means that any trolling is of the most mild, passive aggressive kind.

However, starting on 26 April Blizzard is hoping to foster a greater sense of community in the game by encouraging players to congregate in the actual real you-can-touch-each-other-and-everything world. Dubbed 'Fireside Meetings', the hope is that players will use these meet-ups to swap strategies, run tournaments, and gawp at each other's OP Warlock zoo decks.

In order to help tempt you out of your gated Xanadu, Blizzard is also offering a unique new backing for your cards (pictured left) as a reward. In order to unlock it, there'll need to be at least three players present, and you'll need to play each other using the 'Player Near Me' function (essentially you have to be on the same subnet, as explained here). You can find more info about Fireside Gatherings here, including a list of major ones planned so far, and the resources for creating your own poster. Which seems adorable. Although maybe less so when someone uses Mind Control on your Ragnaros The Firelord and you have to go upside their head with your laptop.

There's little doubt in my mind that Hearthstone's enforced anonymity is a large part of the game's success, but for such an otherwise popular game, it's probably also had a chilling effect on the more fun community aspects of online play. (Although it should be noted there are still some great resource sites, like Hearthstone Players, Hearthpwn, and Don't Kick My Robot.) It'll be interesting to see whether these events take off, or whether, like me, you fear meeting new people as you do a bullet with your own name on it.